Spiritual Wisdom of Taoism in Business:
through the lens of interpretation realism in a Cisco
end-to -end case study
Peter Sun San Wong
QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point, Australia
Philip Arthur Neck
Southern Cross Business School, Southern Cross University, Tweed, Australia
Bernard McKenna
UQ Business School, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
Abstract
This paper explores how the amalgamated wisdom of East and West can instigate a wisdombased renaissance of humanistic epistemology (Rooney & McKenna, 2005) to provide a
platform of harmony in managing knowledge-worker productivity, one of the biggest
management challenges of the 21st century (Drucker, 1999). The paper invites further
discussions from the social and business research communities on the significance of
“interpretation realism” technique in comprehending philosophies of Lao Tzu (老 子 ） ， Confucius (孔子）and
Sun Tzu (孫子）［Lao/Confucius/Sun]
written in “Classical Chinese.”
This paper concludes with a call to build prudent, responsible practices in management
which affects the daily lives of many (Rooney & McKenna, 2005) in today’s knowledgebased economy.
Interpretation Realism will be applied to an analysis of three Chinese classics of
Lao/Confucius/Sun which have been embodied in the Chinese culture for over 2,500 years.
Comprehending Lao/Confucius/Sun’s philosophies is the first step towards understanding
Classical Chinese culture. However, interpreting Chinese subtlety in language and the yin
and yang
(陰 陽 ） circular
synthesis in their mode of thinking is very different to
understanding Western thought with its open communication and its linear, analytical
pattern of Aristotelian/Platonic wisdom (Zuo, 2012). Furthermore, Eastern ways of
communication are relatively indirect and mediatory in culture. Western ways of
communication are relatively direct and litigious in culture (Goh, 2002). Furthermore,
Lao/Confucius/Sun’s philosophies are difficult to comprehend as there are four written
Chinese formats and over 250 dialects: Pre-classical Chinese (甲骨文） Classical
， Chinese
(古 文 ） Literary
， Chinese (文 言 文 ） and
modern Vernacular Chinese (白 話 文 ） Because
． Classical Chinese is poetic, comprehension requires a mixed approach of interpretation
realism combining logical reasoning behind “word splitting (拆字） “word
， occurrences”,
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“empathetic metaphor” and “poetic appreciation of word (望文生義） ”． I. INTRODUCTION
It is almost without argument that the three Chinese classics of Lao Tzu (老子pinyin1: Lao
zi), Confucius (孔子pinyin: Kong zi) and Sun Tzu (孫子pinyin: Sūn zi) are embodied in
the Chinese culture for over 2,500 years. Comprehending Lao/Confucius/Sun’s
philosophies takes the first step towards understanding Chinese culture. At the same time,
arguably, these three philosophies have also influenced Western thinking. Lao Tzu’s Tao Te
Ching (道 德 經 pinyin: Dào dé jī ng; often referred to as “The Way”) is one of the most
translated book in history next to the Bible and the ancient scripture of
Hinduism—Bhagavad Gita (Mair, 1990). “The Analects (論 語 pinyin: Lún yu)” by
Confucius provides considerable bearing on the thinking of leading intellectual figures
(Makeham, 2008) since the European Enlightenment (some have argued that Confucius
became the patron saint of this movement). Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is recognized as one
of the most renowned masterpieces of military thought and business strategy.
As a current day area of interest, the intent of this paper is to investigate the impact of
2
amalgamated wisdom of Eastern (predominantly Chinese) and Western (predominantly
North American) cultures towards managing knowledge-worker productivity. However,
this discussion is only a portion of a series of discussions on Taoism, Confucianism and that
Sun Tzu. In this paper, a Cisco “end-to-end” case study is presented to illustrate how the first
12 words of Lao Tzu’s “The Way” can be exercised as a source of aspirations for business
entrepreneurs to build their core ideology (their Tao). Tao is one part of the equation to
develop harmony in business identified as the first step of business transformation towards
managing knowledge-worker productivity. “Spirituality” in Eastern culture can be seen as a
springboard to elicit harmony in society which should also work in a business environment.
Harmony is about group performance as opposed to “spirituality” which is more a tribute to
individual performance. Harmony can be viewed to be the true mechanism to enhance
knowledge-worker productivity in the workplace. In addition, “spirituality” of individual
employees helps to develop, maintain and reinstate harmony in business (Wong & Neck,
2013). A workplace practice of amalgamated wisdom of Eastern and Western culture should
have an impact on the management of a knowledge-based workforce; in other words, tackle
the biggest management challenge of the 21st Century by managing knowledge-worker
productivity (Drucker, 1999).
Interpreting Chinese subtlety in language and the yin and yang (陰陽　pinyin: Yīn yáng)
circular synthesis employed in their mode of thinking is very different to understanding
Western openness in communication and its linear analytical pattern of Platonic wisdom
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(Zuo, 2012). It has been noted that the Chinese ways of communication can be seen to be
relatively indirect, that is tend to be defensive and mediatory in culture, while western ways
of communication may reflect a relatively direct approach, that is they can be seen to be
offensive and litigious in culture (Goh, 2002).
To further demonstrate the difficulty in comprehending Lao/Confucius/Sun’s philosophies,
in the Chinese language time-line, there are four written formats (Figure 1) and over 250
dialects. The written formats are the “Pre-classical Chinese found in oracle bone scripts (甲
骨 文　pinyin: Jia guwén)”, “Classical Chinese (古 文 pinyin: Gu wén)”, “Literary Chinese
(文言文pinyin: Wényán wén)” and modern “Vernacular Chinese (白話文pinyin: Báihuà
wén)”.
Fig.1: Time-line in Chinese history (Liu, 2003)
II. UNDERSTANDING CLASSICAL CHINESE
The succinctness of “Classical Chinese (古文pinyin: Gu wén)” tends to be poetic in nature.
Comprehending the three books from Lao/Confucius/Sun, requires a mixed approach of
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“interpretation realism”, combining logical reasoning behind “word splitting (拆字pinyin:
Chā i zì)”, “word occurrences” and “empathetic metaphor” followed by “poetic
appreciation of word” (望文生義pinyin: Wàngwén Shēngyì) to interpret deeper into their
thinking processes and philosophies behind the words written in early “Classical Chinese
(古文pinyin: Gu wén)”, in decorative scripts3 (篆書　pinyin: Zhuànshū） a，format
used in
written Chinese about 2,500 years ago.
A. Interpretation realism
“Interpretation realism” technique requires understanding the dictionary meaning of words
used in the time period of around the 6th Century BC when Lao/Confucius/Sun’s
philosophies are believed to have been written. “The Original Han Dynasty Dictionary (說
文解字　pinyin: Shuōwén jiězì) by Xu shen (許慎pinyin: Xu shèn)” provides the prime
source of reference. It is because a meaning given to the same word used in that period could
have a different meaning in a later period.
At times, a “word splitting” technique is used to interpret the word meaning from its
“pictographically composed pictogram symbols (象 形 文 字　pinyin: Xiàngxíng wénzì)”.
Symbols are then studied for their meanings. “Word splitting” is a technique also used in
Chinese fortune telling. For example, the word “family” (家　pinyin: Jiā） is　made up of a
symbol “宀”　（pinyin: Mián or Bao), to represent “roof over the head” and a second symbol
“豕”　（pinyin: Shi) to represent “pig”. The combined symbol (Fig. 2) of “宀”　and “豕”　forms the word “family” (家pinyin: Jiā） ：
Fig. 2: “Word splitting”example
III. OVERVIEW OF LAO TZU'S PHILOSOPHY
This overview is based on Lao Tzu's “Tao Te Ching (道 德 經 pinyin: Dào dé jîng)” The
philosophy of Lao Tzu's “The Way” discussed in this article is primarily based on classsical
text of Lao Zi's Dao De Jing (老 子 道 德 經 ) and Wáng Bì's (王 弼 ， 2　26年 － 249) “The
Review of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, transl., (王弼老子道德經注） ”available online at
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http://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/道 德 經 ＿ 王
（ 弼 本 ). It is also based on “interpretation
realism” technique developed for this book and from rote learning of Classical Chinese
since childhood at the Confucius Primary School (大成學校), Hong Kong.
A. Lao Tzu's “Nature in Entrepreneurship”
The oldest of the three classics, Tao Te Ching (道德經pinyin: Dào dé jîng often known as
“The Way”) of 5,000 words in 81 chapters, is thought to be written by Lao Tzu around the 6th
Century BC. Some scholars also believe Tao Te Ching could have been written by a number
of anonymous scholars under the collective name of Lao Tzu. Chapters 1 to 37 can be
grouped as “The Way” or “Tao (道pinyin: Dào)” and chapters 38 to 81 can be grouped as “Te
(德pinyin: Dé)” or “virtue”. The third word Ching (經pinyin: Jîng) means a “classic”. Tao
Te Ching (道德經pinyin: Dào dé jîng) can be described as “The Way of Nature”. Lao Tzu's
“Nature in Entrepreneurship” is currently studied as a source of aspirations for business
entrepreneurs towards “developing” harmony in business to manage knowledge-worker
productivity (Wong & Neck, 2013, Wong, 2013).
IV. THE YIN AND YANG4 OF “HARMONY”
Looking back into Chinese history, both the Han and the Tang Dynasties built harmony and
social stability from “spirituality pluralism” practices of Taoism, Confucianism and later
Buddhism. Eventually the Han Dynasty opened up the Silk Road to international traders
over a distance of 6,500 km across the Afro-Eurasian landmass. When the Silk Road was
blocked by the Mongols during the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋 pinyin: Nánsòng), 11271279, international trade continued via the Maritime Silk Road with trading partners over
220 countries at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (元代 pinyin: Yuán), 1279-1368 (Smita, 2011).
In Chinese history, not only did the abandonment and outlawing spirituality in the culture of
Confucianism, Taoism and/or Buddhism cause social unrest and disharmony, but also, in
part, brought the down fall of the short-lived reign of Qin Dynasty (秦pinyin: Qín), 221-207
B.C. The disposal of the first Tang Emperor, Gaozu (唐 高 祖　pinyin: Táng gāozu) by his
second son was due to Gao's decimation of Taoist and Buddhist clerics (Sun, 2004).
This Yin and Yang pattern of “harmony and disharmony” appears to be a repeating pattern in
Chinese history. Table I is a summary of the abandonment and revival of spirituality
(predominantly Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism) dictating the Chinese culture.
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TABLE I: Table Type Styles
V. THE YIN AND YANG OF TAO
Both i-ching (易经　pinyin:Yì jīng; often referred to as “The Book of Changes”) and Lao
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Tzu’s Tao Te Ching describe “nature” as the ying and yang of Tao (Liu, 1819). I-Ching
illustrate changes (yin and yang) in an eight by eight hexagram chart (八卦；pinyin:
Bā　guà)
5
as the building blocks to describe changes in nature or life. Mathematically speaking, eight
by eight building blocks gives over two millions variations (8^7 = 2,097,152) and using six
variations per hexagram gives a near infinite variations (64^63 = 6.156563e+113). Such is
the power and mystery of I-Ching’s hexagram fortune telling. I-Ching can also be regarded
as “the book of hopes” based on the natural life-cycle of humanity. Further discussion of IChing is beyond the scope of this paper. However, the authors have planned to present IChing’s application for global business transformation in the Digital Age ruled by “Big
Data” and connected technologies.
Tao Te Ching describes nature of Tao in the very first twelve words of Lao Tzu’s 5,000 words
classic. These twelve words, representing the philosophy of the book, are grouped in two
sentences. Each sentence is made up of two phrases of three words apiece (Figure 3). The
first sentence refers to the word “Tao” (道pin yin: Dào) or “The Way”. The second sentence
refers to “name” (名 pinyin: Míng). Both “Tao” and “Name” can be noun or verb in
“Classical Chinese (古文Gu wén)” as illustrated in Figure 3:
Fig. 3: The first twelve words of Tao Te Ching
These twelve words, written in Classical Chinese (古 文 pinyin: Gu wén), are perfectly
succinct to the point that they are impossible to be put into a meaningful text without
referring to a context. The words are punctuated into two sentences. Each sentence is made
up of two phrases of three words apiece. The first sentence refers to “Tao” or “The Way”. The
second sentence refers to an undefined item refers to as “name” (名—Míng). Literally, these
two sentences could be translated as, “If the way can be defined, it is not a perpetual way. If
the name can be specified, it is not a perpetual name.”
However, Lao Tzu’s philosophy of Tao, summarised in these perfectly succinct twelve
words, which, to some extent makes any translation attempt, possibly risk the danger of
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blurring or dulling Lao Tzu’s message of Tao. Many translations, do catch the meaning of
the words but they also tend to make the message vague in a matter of fact way or they
confuse mysticism with imprecision5. It is well-known that the difficult nature interpreting
or translating these twelve words is a hindrance to the study of Tao Te Ching. Therefore, the
authors do not pretend to have a perfect translation of the first twelve words but to offer
another dimension of translation based on a “word splitting” technique6 (拆字pinyin: Chāi
zì)”.
In a further attempt to decipher these twelve words, the authors used “word splitting” to
explore the meaning of the word “Tao” and the word “name”. Based on the “The Original
Han Dynasty Dictionary (說 文 解 字　pinyin: shuō wén jiě zì)”, the word Tao (道 pinyin:
Dào) comes from two symbols meaning “walk” (走 — pinyin: Zou) and the symbol of
“head” (首　pinyin: Shou). Combining the two words of “walk (走 — pinyin: Zou)” and
“head (首　pinyin: Shou)”, the word Tao (道 pinyin: Dào) literally means “walk where the
head is facing”, referring to a long way as far as the eyes can see. Tao in this sense can be
described as “the way far ahead” (Figure 4).
Fig. 4 : Defining Dào (道） from
word splitting technique
The word “name (名 pinyin: Míng)” also comes from two symbols of “mouth (口 ） ”　and
“sunset represented by a new moon symbol (夕　pinyin: Xī ） ”． The
combined word,
“name” (名pinyin: Míng), refers to a situation of uncertainty when walking in sunset and
something or someone appears in the dark. However, when both sides identify (named)
themselves, suddenly the situation is as clear as if a light bulb has been switched on. In the
context of Tao Te Ching, when “it” is named, it has an identity as a “beacon” or the means to
get to “The Way” far ahead (Figure 5).
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Fig. 5 : Defining Míng (名） from
word splitting technique
To further reading deeper into the twelve words, the ‘word occurrences’ of seven frequently
mentioned words—“Tao (道 pinyin: Dào),” “Name (名 pinyin: Míng),” “Te (德 pinyin:
Dé),” “Sage (聖 人 pinyin: Shèng rén),” “Kindness (仁　pinyin: Rén),” “None (無 pinyin:
Wú)” and “Big (大pinyin: Dà)” are illustrated below (Figure 6):
Fig. 6 : Seven most mentioned words
Statistics from “word occurrences” show “Tao (道） ”
（ ７ mentions);
５ “Sage (聖人） ”
（ ３ ３ mentions); Sage’s act of “none/non-interference (無 ） ”
（ １ ０mentions);
１ “big (大 ） ”
５ ９ （mentions); “virtue of Te (德 ） ”
４ ５ （mentions);
“name (名 ） ”
（ ２ mentions)
４ ; and
“kindness” (仁） （　４ mentions).
５ Yet “Tao” is nowhere definitively defined in the beginning
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12 words or the rest of the book. There are four observations:
1. Because “Tao” is not defined in the first twelve words or the rest of the book but it is
mentioned 75 times, it could be interpreted that Lao Tzu was trying to define “Tao” but
“Tao” could not be defined or described definitively in words (suggested with respect
for the purpose of academic argument) or it was deliberately left vague;
2. The legend also says “Lao Tzu, facing the upheavals of the Warring States Period and
the crumbling of the Zhou Dynasty that he served, was asked by the keeper at the border
to write down his reflections before he disappeared into the wilderness.” Therefore, with
this legend in mind Lao Tzu, metaphorically speaking, used the word “Sage” 33 times to
refer to “a great leader.” “A great leader” should, therefore, follows “Sage’s Nature” in
“Tao” of “none/no-interference (mentioned 102 times)”;
3. The fact that the word “Sage” (33 mentions) with its act of “none/no-interference” (102
mentions) while “a great person” (上善） is　mentioned once only, suggests that Tao Te
Ching should be regarded as a book for leaders and not so much a book for their
“citizens”. The two phrases “Shèng Rén (聖 人 ） ”
and “Shàng Shàn (上 善 ） ”
have
similar meaning in Chinese but Lao Tzu could have used the two phrases with separate
meanings: “Shèng Rén (聖人） ”
to mean “great leaders” and “Shàng Shàn (上善） ”
to
mean “great citizens. If so, Lao Tzu’s “The Way” is more a book for “great leaders” than
“The Analects” of Confucius (論語）as　a book for “good citizens”; and
4. Comparing Lao Tzu’s Taoism with Confucianism is like comparing apples with
oranges. They are two different philosophies. A debate on Taoism against Confucianism
is very much like debating quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, trivial at
best.
Based on these four observations derived from “interpretation realism” and “word
occurrences”, the meaning of the first twelve poetic words is extrapolated further in the
context of leadership over a three-step process:
1. “Interpretation realism” technique offers the earliest word-meaning of the twelve words
written succinctly in a poetic-like format of “Classical Chinese (古文pinyin: Gu wén)”;
2. These twelve words are then presented in less succinct “Literary Chinese (文 言 文
pinyin: Wén yán Wén)” over 24 words for a lesser subtle and lesser poetic approach; and
3. Combining step 1 and 2, step three, it presents a creative interpretation with a poem as a
poetic interpretation of Tao within a business context (Figure 7):
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Fig. 7 : Three step interpretation of Tao within a business context
In a business context, the same twelve words have both implied and extrapolated messages
for business leaders (Figure 8):
Fig. 8 : Extrapolated interpretation of Tao for business
In the early 90’s, to the network equipment providers, “the next big thing” was a holistic
approach to a total networking solution. This was a view shared by all major network
equipment vendors like Cisco, Bay Networks, 3Com, Cabletron, Digital Equipment (DEC),
Fore Systems, Newbridge Networks, Madge Networks, Nortel, Lucent, HP, IBM and the
likes. Why is it, then, that Cisco could remain, by far, the most successful network
equipment provider today while most of their competitors failed?
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VI. A FOUR-STEP “TAO FOR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION”
The authority as Cisco’s marketing and sales analyst comes from 15 years of consultancy for
a number of network equipment providers and exclusively for Cisco in the mid 90’s to early
2000’s. Using Cisco’s ideology and vision of offering its end-to-end solution as an example,
a four-step “Tao tin managing business transformation” is presented here to illustrate how
business entrepreneurs and business leaders can draw from Tao for their business
transformations.
Step 1: Now it begins (道可道） —
a vision
In Cisco’s early days, providing an end-to-end internetworking solution was their CEO’s
vision of “the next big thing” for the telecommunications industry. When Cisco was only a
router vendor, Cisco still pushed end-to-end internetworking solution as the next big thing
for the telecommunications industry. Cisco continued to market their vision of the next big
thing when they had no capability yet to fuse from one end of their intelligent routers with
the other end of Fast Ethernet switches, high speed fibre-optic asynchronous transfer mode
(ATM) core switches and the likes from other leading providers such as Lucent, Nortel,
Alcatel, Bay and a myriad of other players much bigger than Cisco. Cisco not only had to
make end-to-end internetworking solution as the next big thing but also they had to make
themselves as the sole end-to-end networking solution provider.
Step 2: Next it transforms (非常道） —
an exclusive solution
Soon enough Cisco marketing efforts of their end-to-end internetworking vision was
starting to develop it into a universally accepted concept as the next big thing. Cisco must
differentiate themselves from all the other box pushing providers. They had to position their
values to beyond just another router supplier at a time when they clearly did not have a total
solution, not yet anyway. Back in the mid to late 90’s, no single internetworking vendor
could provide a total solution because the end-to-end technology was not available—it was
just a vision of the next big thing for. Needless to say, all network equipment providers had
different end-to-end stories. In 1994, Cisco introduced the next big thing as their
CiscoFusion architecture.
Step 3: Then it sticks (名可名） —
a unique business value
While Cisco has CiscoFusion, other network vendors had similar entities. Cabletron
Systems had Synthesis, DEC had Envisn, IBM had Switched Virtual Networking, Fore
Systems had ForeThought, UB Networks had GeoLAN, Newbridge Networks had Vivid
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and Madge Networks had Collage27.
Cisco chose a software approach in the form of Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco
IOS). Together CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS became the Cisco internetworking architecture that
"fuses" together all heterogeneous networks into a single platform with the scalability,
stability, and security advantages of the latest routing technologies and the performance
benefits of high speed ATM and LAN (Local Area Network) switching and the management
benefits of VLANs (Virtual LAN). In addition, Cisco’s software approach also provided the
business value that the telecommunications industry was looking for— a customisable and
localisable approach to build scalable, manageable, flexible, interoperable, secured and
future-proved network architecture.
CiscoFusion was not just a marketing statement or a “marketecture” catchphrase described
and laughed at by their competitors. CiscoFusion/Cisco IOS had transformed Cisco’s
business from a provider of intelligent routers to a provider of end-to-end internetworking
solution. CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS became “The Cisco Way”, their Tao, their vision, their core
ideology and their values to eventually be recognised as THE end-to-end internetworking
solution provider.
Step 4: Again it changes (非常名） —
not the core ideology
Cisco IOS is also their way to provide an end-to-end solution to their customers using a
customisable and localisable approach to build scalable, manageable, flexible,
interoperable, secured and future-proved network architecture. This exclusiveness and
differentiation eventually made Cisco IOS as the de facto internetwork operating system
much like Microsoft Windows as the de facto desktop operating system. At the height of the
dot-com boom, Cisco became the most valuable company in the world, with a whopping
market cap of around US500 billion. Cisco, today, is still one of the most valuable
companies.
But in today’s knowledge-based economy, what then, is “the next big thing” for Cisco and
other network equipment providers? Why did Cisco change their core ideology from end-toend solution provider to wireless internet equipment and consumer-oriented technologies
they called the Human Network? Why didn’t Cisco’s Human Network, become the social
network’s next big things? Why did Cisco get it so wrong with their Human Network that
arguably could become their next big thing? What happened? At the time of writing, Cisco
appears to be betting on Cloud technology to be their next big thing. Could Cisco get it right
this time with their CloudVerse? Could Cisco regain the realm as the most valuable company
in the world for the second time? Can Tao provide Cisco with a “verse” answer?
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VII. STAYING WITH TAO
If the next big thing has become universally accepted as “the Way” for an organisation, it
should always remain as the Tao for that organization. The explanation comes from the first
eight words in Chapter 4 of Tao Te Ching (道德經　pinyin: Dào dé jīng). This eight-word
message is punctuated into three phrases of two and three words apiece. Translating this
sentence in a metaphorical way, says “If there is a cup (沖　pinyin: Chōng—the utensil that
holds Tao) that holds Tao, when Tao is consumed, it will never be exhausted (as it is like
drinking from a bottomless cup)” (Figure 9).
Fig. 9 : Chapter 4 of Tao Te Ching
Putting into business context, these same words now add another dimension to Tao (Figure
10):
Fig. 10 : Same text interpretation within a business context
For businesses that have built on their Taos, in the other words, their vision of how they want
to be known, for example, “Dettol,” “Thermos,” “Band-Aid,” “Mortein,” “Windows,”
“Harvard” and so on, the eight words can be interpreted as “The opportunities (in sales and
otherwise) generated from Tao, are infinite (just like drinking from a bottomless cup).” The
means (the next big thing) to get there will change but not Tao as Lao Tzu explained in the
first twelve words of Tao Te Ching (道德經 pinyin: Dào dé jîng). Not only do they innovate
from their Tao but they are flexible with their means to get there. Unfortunately, some
businesses do not see this point and ultimately this lack of vision has caused many great
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companies fade to oblivion.
It appears that offering end-to-end solution is Cisco's Tao, then the opportunities
surrounding this end-to-end vision is endless. However, did Cisco see
CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS as their Tao or their “next big thing”—a fad that will eventually lose
its lustre? Did Cisco also realise “the next big thing” such as their short-lived “Human
Network” and their current push for “CloudVerse” are just means to get to their Tao (as the
provider of an end-to-end vision)? Did Cisco finally wake up and re-launch the end-to-end
message as the Cisco Way?
VIII. A CIRCLE GAME—THE YIN AND YANG OF CISCO END-TO-END VISION
The following chart summarised Cisco annual reports from 1995 to 2011 (Figure 11).
Fig. 11 : Key messages from Cisco annual reports (1995-2011)
From the chart, the message on end-to-end and CiscoFusion started to appear in Cisco
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annual reports as early as 1995. The message on CiscoFusion was dropped from 1998 annual
report onwards but Cisco continued to emphasise their end-to-end message up to 2001.
Cisco dropped their end-to-end message in their 2004 and 2005 annual reports but it was reemphasised in 2006 together with the message of their “Human Network.” The “Human
Network” message gained prominence and it was the front cover of their annual reports from
2006 to 2010. The message on the “Human Network” was starting to phase out in their 2009
and 2010 annual reports. It was eventually dropped in their 2011 annual report. Cisco went
back to emphasise their end-to-end message.
The experience gained as a marketing and sales consultant to Cisco in the mid 90's to early
2000's and after studying the key messages from Cisco annual reports, a common theme
became noticeable. Cisco did a great job in marketing themself as the end-to-end network
solution provider right from the very beginning. They did and still do a great job providing
end-to-end products, services and solutions. End-to-end solution is Cisco's Tao whether it is
an end-to-end architecture to build scalable networks as in CiscoFusion/Cisco IOS or an
end-to-end architecture to build the “Human Network” or an end-to-end architecture to
build, manage and connect Cloud networks. End-to-end solution provider has to be viewed
as the “Tao—the way” for Cisco.
Opportunities for Cisco in the end-to-end solution marketplace are endless.
CiscoFusion/Cisco IOS has taken Cisco to the realm of all internetworking equipment
providers. Whether Cisco followed Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (道德經 pinyin: Dào dé jîng) or
not is just a philosophical argument. But they did apply their label, CiscoFusion, and made it
an exclusive entity to Cisco as the blue-print for an end-to-end network architecture.
Cisco software approach to build a future-proved end-to-end internetworking solution has
provided Cisco with a unique differentiation of CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS network
architecture. CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS paved the way for Cisco to their meteoric success
during the dot-com boom. Indeed, there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time
has come. It is as Victor Hugo said “You can resist an invading army; you cannot resist an
idea whose time has come.” CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS, Microsoft Windows, Google,
Facebook, Twitter and Apple are just some examples of such ideas whose time has come.
IX. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Cisco did a great job marketing the company as the end-to-end network solution provider
right from the very beginning. End-to-end solution is arguable the Cisco Way whether it is an
end-to-end architecture to build scalable networks (CiscoFusion/Cisco IOS), an end-to-end
architecture to build the “Human Network” or an end-to-end architecture to build, manage
and connect Cloud network. End-to-end solution provider is ideally “The Way “for Cisco.
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Spiritual Wisdom of Taoism in Business:through the lens of interpretation realism in a Cisco end-to -end case study
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Indeed Cisco could regain their throne as the end-to-end solution provider in today's
knowledge-based economy. To reiterate, Lao Tzu has stated “If there is a cup that holds Tao,
when Tao is consumed, it will never be exhausted (as it is like drinking from a bottomless
cup).” With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to suggest to Cisco that they could have and
should have continued with their vision, their core ideology and values as the end-to-end
internet solution provider. Cisco should realise that their Way, their Tao is to continue to
focus on their end-to-end vision just like they did with CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS (their Tao /
and their means). Cisco should continue to draw business aspirations from the “nature of
Tao” to position their “CloudVerse,” as the next big thing and as the means to an end-to-end
world-wide-web of Cloud. They must re-position Cisco as the end-to-end network solution
provider for Cloud. If they believe in the “nature of Tao”, they should put have put their label
to it, in a similar fashion like CiscoFusion/Cisco IOS and call it Cisco
Something/CiscoCloudVerse Operating Systems like CiscoFusion/ CiscoCOS. There is no
reason to suggest why the marketing success of CiscoFusion/CiscoIOS in the heyday of
Cisco, cannot be repeated today.
But what is holding Cisco back? What have Cisco learned from their expensive experience
of the failed attempt to create a “household” brand with their “Human Network” marketing
campaign? With the benefit of hindsight, it is easier for an outsider to point out this Cisco
investment disaster. But one might also state that, Cisco, with a global workforce of
70,000+, mostly knowledge worker themselves, should have spotted their strategic mistake
before “Human Network” even got off the ground. But, why didn't they?
To make matters worse, with a lower than expected profit in 2011 and under financial
pressure, Cisco was forced to reduce their expenses by US$1 billion, mainly through job
cuts of 3,000+ employees targeted for early retirement and a further cut of around 10,000+
jobs [7]. The disruption to business harmony within Cisco and their customer base must be
detrimental. In today's knowledge-based economy, the next wave of productivity gain must
come from knowledge workers rather than manual workers [8]. Managing knowledgeworker productivity starts with harmony in business [9]. Employees from a high technology
organisation, such as Cisco, surely are, mostly if not all, knowledge workers themselves.
One has to wonder if Cisco do view their employees as costs (an outcome of scientific
management where employees are viewed as cogs and machines parts) or as assets
(knowledge workers of the Cisco human network). If Cisco did view their employees as
knowledge workers, just imagine how mighty it is for Cisco when they are armed with
70,000 plus knowledge workers as their global business consultants. Imagine how
invincible this could be for businesses to turn their workforce of knowledge workers into
trusted business consultants and strategic business advisors!
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Notes
1
In this article, both pinyin (literally means “spelled sound or phonetics”, see appendix) and
common English pronunciations will be applied when Chinese characters are used.
2
This article considers how philosophies from Lao Tzu, Confucius and Sun Tzu, set
historically in the agricultural civilization of China (emerging economy today), when
amalgamated with Western wisdom in a modern industrialized economy may well provide
the means to managing knowledge-worker productivity, the biggest 21st century challenge
for management (Drucker, 1999). This may allow the “West to remain good at being West
(Ferguson, 2012)” and the “East to emerge as good as the West at being East (Wong & Neck,
2013)”.
A Chinese characters evolved from 1. “Oracle bone script (↲㛽ᢥpinyin: Jiǎgǔ
wén) to 2.
Bronze or Seal script (㊄ᢥpinyin: Jīn wén) to 3. Decorative script (►ᦠpinyin: Zhuànshū)
to 4. Clerical or chancery script (㓯ᦠ；pinyin: Lìshū) to 7. Standard script (ᭃᦠpinyin: Kǎ
ishū). Whenever possible, the earliest version of the archeologically identified script is used
in “interpretation realism” of this paper.
3
4
In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang refer to natural dualism such as “good and bad”,
“cold and hot”, “water and fire”, “harmony and disharmony” and so on so forth. The yin
and yang concept explains how seemingly opposing forces are actually complementary to
each other. In Taoism, its cosmological symbol of yin and yang is represented by a white and
a black fish embraced in a circular complemented motion of harmony—
5
Ursula Le Guin, in her book “Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching”, uses Borges's Aleph story to
describe her thoughts on these twelve words, “if you see it rightly, it contains everything”
[2].
“…if I have a process that can discover building blocks, the combinatorics start working for
me instead of against me. I can describe a great many complicated things with relatively few
building blocks (Holland, 1992)”. The concept of using building blocks to uncover and
address critical business issues is not new. They are often used by institutions such as the
American Society for Quality as criteria in their prestigious Baldrige National Quality
Program for Performance Excellence Awards for US organisations. Nine building blocks
are considered a sufficient number to describe complicated issues.
”Word splitting (ᜃሼpinyin: Chāi zì)” is a technique used in “interpretation realism”,
a technique developed to critically interpret the meaning of books written in Classical
6
Vol. VI, No. 1, March 2013 - August 2013
Spiritua
19
Chinese (ฎᢥpinyin: Gǔ
wén)..
7
Source: Gillooly, C. (1996). The House Your LAN Built. http://www. informationweek.com/
573/73mtlan.htm viewed October 6, 2012.
References
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Gillooly, C.: 1996, 'The House Your LAN Built' http://www.informationweek.com/573/73mtlan.htm
viewed October 6, 2012.
Goh, B.C.: 2002, Law without lawyers, justice without courts: on traditional Chinese mediation (UK:
Ashgate, Aldershot).
Han, Z. Q.: 2009, The Grand History in Vernacular Chinese (Taipei: Chung Hwa Book Company).
Hays, J.: 2008, History of Confucianism. http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=89, viewed
December 15, 2012.
Holland, J. H.: 1992, in Mitchell Waldrop (ed.) Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of
Order and Chaos (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks), p. 170.
Liu, W.: 2003, Graphical Illustration of Chinese Civilization, transl (Hong Kong: Commercial Press
(HK) Ltd.).
Liu, Y. M.: 1819, Twelve Collections of Taois, transl. (China: China Press of Traditional Chinese
Medicine (1990)).
Makeham, J.: 2008, Ancient Civilizations: China—The World's Oldest Living Civilization Revealed
(Australia: Global Book Publishing).
Mair, V. H.: 1990, 'Introduction and Notes for a Translation of the Ma-wang-tui Manuscripts of the
Lao Tzu (Old Master), Sino-Platonic Papers, Number 20, October, 1990, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, USA. http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp020_tao_te_ ching_translation.pdf,
viewed October 12, 2012.
Rooney, D. and McKenna, B.: 2005, Should the Knowledge-based Economy be a Savant or a Sage?
Wisdom and Socially Intelligent Innovation (Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group).
Smita, S.: 2011, 'Maritime Silk Routes—The Story of the Oldest Trade Routes',
http://www.marineinsight.com/ marine/life-at-sea/maritime-history/maritime-silk-routes-the-storyof-the-oldest-trade-routes/#ixzz28OTnMBRP viewed October 5, 2012.
Sun, T.: 2004, Critical Events in Chinese history, transl. (Taipei: Great Earth Publisher).
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Wong, P. S.: 2013, 'Developing, maintaining and reinstating harmony in business based on an
amalgamated Eastern and Western wisdom approach in the management of knowledge-worker
productivity', research in progress, The QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology,
Garden Points, Brisbane, Australia .
Wong, P. S. and Neck, A. P.: 2013, When East meets West: Managing the Digital Age of Global
Business Transformation, forthcoming Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Zuo, B.: 2012, Essentials of Confucianism in What Confucianism means to overseas Chinese
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Queensland, Parliament House, Brisbane, Australia.
APPENDIX
In simplified Chinese, Pinyin (拼音) transcribe Chinese characters into Latin scripts with four tones
(Fig. 9) indicated by tonal marks on each pinyin Latin script.
Figure 9. The four tones used in Pinyin
Vol. VI, No. 1, March 2013 - August 2013